Wednesday, November 25, 2009

In the United States it is Thanksgiving Eve, I hope you are all looking forward to a nice holiday. If you're going out on Friday, I wish you the best of luck. I tried that one year and thought I was viewing humanity at its ugliest. So, I've opted not to go back no matter how good the deals may be. I plan to read instead!

But today, let's welcome some memoirists!

Today I'm starting off with an author I met on Twitter; he's not published here in the U.S., yet, but I think maybe we need to start making some noise on this side of the pond. Steve Mosby is the author of five thriller novels and he hails from Leeds in the UK. His parents were supportive of his reading and writing habits growing up, even making him homemade booklets in which to write his "choose your own adventure" stories. These days, Orion is making the books Steve writes in, the most recent, STILL BLEEDING, released in the U.K. this year. Steve describes write as putting "one word in front of the other." And he's doing that daily as he works on his sixth psychological thriller.

Steve says his education in philosophy comes in handy for plot development. Not only does it help him to appreciate other viewpoints, he also can attack and defend those viewpoints. When asked the three best words to describe his writing he chose "dark, cruel, and emotional." I'm looking forward to finding out if that is true because I got my paws on a copy of his novel, THE 50/50 KILLER (Thank you, Jon Jordan)!

On a little more of a personal note, Steve is one of my favorite people to follow on Twitter. I look forward to his tweets every day. He has an uncanny knack for observing humanity around him, and his narration of his observations is thoroughly entertaining. But Steve truly endeared himself to me with his memoir. He cited a passage from an interview where Cormac McCarthy says, "There was never a person born since Adam who's been luckier than me. Nothing has happened to me that hasn't been perfect. And I'm not being facetious. There's never been a time when I was penniless and down, when something wouldn't arrive. Over and over and over again. Enough to make you superstitious." Steve said this really rang true for him as well - in all aspects of his life, career included. So, his memoir is fittingly

Surprisingly, things have always gone well.

And I know you'll join me in wishing him continued success as he moves on to another chapter in his life: fatherhood. Steve and his wife are expecting their first child.

Jamie Freveletti is a debut writer this year. 2009 saw the publication of her first thriller novel, RUNNING FROM THE DEVIL. While I don't think Jamie is running from the devil, I do know she does a lot of running, both herself and crewing for an ultra runner. I asked her what this "crewing" involved, she told me to think of it like a pit crew for a formula one race. So she could be changing the runner into dry clothes, running alongside him/her at 2:00 in the morning, providing moral support and encouragement, especially when the last mile is straight up hill. Like the pit crew with the car and drive, she makes sure the runner has what he or she needs, physically, emotionally, mentally to finish the race. And this inspired RUNNING FROM THE DEVIL.

Jamie is also active in martial arts, both practicing and teaching Aikido, where she's reached the level of black belt.

Her resume shows that she attended law school and then earned a diploma in International Studies while living in Geneva, Switzerland. In addition to the ultra runner, Jamie blended her experience as a trial lawyer and her knowledge of International Studies together, threw in a dash of science, and came up with RUNNING FROM THE DEVIL.

Jamie tells us that her most recent reading obsession includes the transcripts from the Madoff trial. And if she can use that to create another thriller like RUNNING FROM THE DEVIL, I say, "Read Jamie! Read!" In all seriousness, though, Jamie has taken the elements of who she is and put them together in a great memoir:

Love adventure, traveled everywhere, writesheroines.

And we never have too many great heroines. I do hope those of you who have been coming back week after week are noting some of these debut authors. Jamie is definitely one to note because intuition tells me she is going to be a household name in thriller writing in no time flat.

Next up we have Steve Forman who started out as a businessman. After college he opened a one-man seafood advertising agency in Boston and built it up to an international success. These days he's splitting time between Boston and Boca Raton, Florida. But Steve isn't happy just soaking up the sun of beautiful Boca, he's set off on a second career path, crime fiction novelist. This year he published his first book BOCA KNIGHTS, inspired by the contrasting lifestyles between Boston and Boca Raton. Ex-cop Eddie Perlmutter hails from Boston but moves to Boca Raton after retirement. Eddie can't help righting wrongs, and that lands him in a mess of Florida trouble.

The sequal, BOCA MOURNINGS, will be hitting bookstores in 2010. Steve's writing has been compared to Carl Hiaasen and "Elmore Leonard on speed." When asked about the differences between the business world and writing, he says it comes down to public perception. "Over the years I‘ve sold millions and millions of pounds of seafood but no one has ever asked me to sign a piece of fish. Write a good book, however and suddenly a lot of people want my signature on something besides a check." And his six word memoir?

from Big Tuna to Boca Knights

Anchoring the post for us this week is Andrew Grant. I have to extend special thanks to Andrew right away. The first time I checked with him to ask him to participate, the fates weren't aligned - or however that astrology thing goes - but later I went back and asked again. I was worried about coming across as a pest - and I may very well have, but Andrew was so gracious and I'm so excited because here he is! As I'm sure many of you know, Andrew shares genes with another great crime fiction writer, Lee Child. While indeed he is Lee Child's brother, Andrew has carved a place for himself in his own right as part of the crime fiction community with this debut spy thriller, EVEN. EVEN features Royal Navy Intelligence officer David Trevellyn who finds himself set up and in trouble with the law in the United States while his superiors in London are turning their backs on him.

Following college at the University of Sheffield, Andrew set up a small, independent theater company. The original material showcased by the company earned critical success, but the financial end of things forced Andrew into a job with in telecommunications. What started out as a "temporary" job turned into 15 years. When circumstances in the telecommunications industry that were beyond his control released him from his "temporary" job, he set out to answer the great question, "what if?"

This year marked Andrew's debut in crime fiction writing, but it has brought him another connection to the crime fiction community. Andrew is engaged to crime fiction's Tasha Alexander. So the beginning of both a new career and a new life prompted Andrew to come up with

The best is yet to come.

My warmest and most heartfelt thanks to all of our authors this week for their time, and for putting up with me. I made several contacts with each of them, and their generosity has been tremendous. I'm so thankful that each and every one of them has been enthusiastic about this project. It's truly what makes it great. Thank you.

And to everyone reading again this week, thank YOU. It wouldn't be half as much fun if you weren't enjoying it with me. Your comments, emails and notes simply make my day. This week I am so very thankful I've had the chance to forge friendships with you through this blog. Thank you for visiting and coming back.

For those of you celebrating, have a wonderful holiday and we'll meet back here next week for the penultimate post of the 2009 "You Have the Right to Six Words" series.

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